Damage Mitigation?

[EclecticGroove 0]

Is there any way to reduce the INSANE damage variance at lower levels befor eyou are able to find any decent gear?

 

Currently my highest level is a 46 seraph on silver. I can walk into the Orc cave sometimes and barely take any damage, not even needing to use a health pot once... then the next time I go out and come in I'm popping HP pots like mad trying to stay alive... then the next time I go out and come in I get 2 shotted before I can even react to pop a health potion.

 

Boss monsters are the same way, I can't stand fighting the mist boss becasue sometimes all the undead stay in the cloud and won't come out, then I run in and it seems like I have 2 options in there:

1) It barely even tickles me and I can kill wave after wave of the undead it spawns without so much as an hp pot.

2) It does some sort of drian move that hits me 2-3 times in quick succession and geneally takes me from full hp down to a sliver in the first hit.

 

When the second one happens if I had not been sitting there pressing the quick button for HP pots regardless of health, I'm dead... sometimes even when I'm pressing the hp pot button I'm STILL dead.

 

The nameless guardians at the end are the same way. I go into the open world and fight them and no problem... then I try again and I can either run away or plow through my entire remaining stock of hp potions until I die horribly.

 

 

Any tricks other than keep grinding and hope for some really kick butt equipment for my class? (Which has NOT been dropping, I have EP at my level with a full set of +4 EP relics)

[BlackJAC 3]

A good idea with melee toons is to pump vitality for the first 49, then vitality strength from 50 onwards.

 

Post your skills and we may be able to help you more as you don't say what aspect you're doing I.e Exhaled Warrior or Tev Tech etc and what other skills you have chosen.

 

If it is a melee toon, then you really need to have battle stance (buff) up and running by time you've even hit the orc cave otherwise you're gonna bite the dust more often than not. That's a lot of your attack, defence and evasion right there. Choose drill as a mod and that means your other Combat Arts won't be useless when it comes to regens.

 

If it is a melee toon and if your battle stance is low levelled or not being used, then it's going to be difficult. You need to start pumping runes into it as it's one of the best buffs in the game.

 

The mist boss is easy if you watch for the funnel appearing. You usually have a second or two to move out the way before it rapes your hp.

 

If it's a caster then you need to have DP modded and usable for places such as the Orc cave.

 

On silver a level 46 a seraphim should be fairly easy as it's a balanced class and extremely powerful towards the tail end of silver.

Edited October 14, 2009 by BlackJAC

[EclecticGroove 0]

Yeah, melee build, basically I'm running the january shopper build posted in the forums here to try and get a toon that can farm me some good sets for anyone other classes I want to play and odn't need to worry about pumping up the two item finding stats.

 

I have battle stance and warding energy both up from the moment I start playing. It only drops when I die or they get debuffed off me (any way to prevent that?)

 

Almost all stats are in EW, I can almost spam pelting non stop, and that's most of what I'm going for.

 

Mist boss "generally" is easy for me as well. I thought the funnel was the damage but osmetimes it's hard to see, and there have been times I'm standing right in it and nothign happens other than a sliver of health gone.

 

I also "just" beat silver about 30 minutes ago... I still can't find anything worthwhile as far as equip goes. I'm in an almost complete Endjian set since it's all that has dropped for me, it's still better than the 0-2 star pieces I've found thus far, but almost none of the stat modifiers for it are very good for me. I've only found a single Niokaste's piece thus far, and that seems to be the set I'd go for.

[BlackJAC 3]

What sort of stuff have you socketed into your gear?

 

If you can spam pelting strikes and it's less than the animation duration, I'd pump a lot more runes into battle stance until you have pelting strikes at a reasonable level. no point in having a 0.1 regen on pelting strikes if the animation lasts longer. shop + all ca rings and amulets and try to get your deathblow % up to around 55. Deathblow makes a huge difference. A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

 

Just socket +all skills too as and when you get them.

Edited October 14, 2009 by BlackJAC

[EclecticGroove 0]

What sort of stuff have you socketed into your gear?

 

If you can spam pelting strikes and it's less than the animation duration, I'd pump a lot more runes into battle stance until you have pelting strikes at a reasonable level. no point in having a 0.1 regen on pelting strikes if the animation lasts longer. shop + all ca rings and amulets and try to get your deathblow % up to around 55. Deathblow makes a huge difference. A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

 

Just socket +all skills too as and when you get them.

 

Almost none of my gear has anything above an element socket (if it has any at all). Hell, other than one sword I just got the weapons I'm using are the same ones I got as a lucky drop some 20 levels prior, nothing better has dropped or shown up in stores yet. Most of the amulets I find are all +/- element damage or for skills I have no use for (like other class skills).

 

I'm hoping that the bargaining/EP thing gets better as you go higher up... becasue it's been less than stellar so far getting me anything to actually use. I do seem to be coming across more 3 star weapons now however, but none usefull to me yet.

[ka243 3]

Equip ice relics vs the mist boss. He can weaken you if you stand in the mist so try to stay out of it and just kill the skellies. Weaken = reduction of your max hp which makes it easier for him to kill you with those big hits he does when you stand in the mist sometimes. Make sure to equip plenty of poison relics vs the last guardian and lots of magic and ice relics when going through the great machine to handle the temple guardian fire traps (which do magic damage, not fire damage) and those blue balls that do ice damage.

Edited October 14, 2009 by ka243

[BlackJAC 3]

Also, No slight on the build you mention, but I think the duel wield shopper is a better all round character as it does away with the warding buff, which I think is next to useless until platinum and beyond. DP is a better choice during the lower levels because if you can get the regen time under the duration time (which is easy btw) then it can be used as a buff without the hit on regen times. pump lots of runes into it and you'll get all benifits of running a buff without any of the negatives

 

What sort of stuff have you socketed into your gear?

 

If you can spam pelting strikes and it's less than the animation duration, I'd pump a lot more runes into battle stance until you have pelting strikes at a reasonable level. no point in having a 0.1 regen on pelting strikes if the animation lasts longer. shop + all ca rings and amulets and try to get your deathblow % up to around 55. Deathblow makes a huge difference. A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

 

Just socket +all skills too as and when you get them.

 

Almost none of my gear has anything above an element socket (if it has any at all). Hell, other than one sword I just got the weapons I'm using are the same ones I got as a lucky drop some 20 levels prior, nothing better has dropped or shown up in stores yet. Most of the amulets I find are all +/- element damage or for skills I have no use for (like other class skills).

 

I'm hoping that the bargaining/EP thing gets better as you go higher up... becasue it's been less than stellar so far getting me anything to actually use. I do seem to be coming across more 3 star weapons now however, but none usefull to me yet.

 

Yeah, that's your main problem most gear is useless and it's the sockets that make the gear, not the gear itself if that makes any sense. Get deathblow and you'll be amazed at how fast the health bars will deplete once you get them down to half way.

Edited October 14, 2009 by BlackJAC

[EclecticGroove 0]

Yeah, I'm not thrilled with melee builds in general.. I don't like the way the targeting and attack system works for melee. I'd much rather have a range/Area of Effect character.. but I know I will need good gear,s o don't particulalry want to "waste" slots on bargain and ep for that. I figure if I can get this seraph to niob for shopping then I'll be set to supply any other character with stuff good enough to work with.

 

As far as the slotted stuff goes.. I'm hoping gold will do better, the monsters don't seem much tougher overall than silver so far (not sure on bosses), so I figure I can grind more gear and shop here.

[BlackJAC 3]

If you're playing the xbox version pm me and I can give you some Nio gear and good swords.

 

I can give you gear around level 60, which if your armour and weapon lores are high enough you'll be able to equip.

 

Edit: Go get yourself a boneslicer or two as they are easily obtainable.

Edited October 14, 2009 by BlackJAC

[EclecticGroove 0]

If you're playing the xbox version pm me and I can give you some Nio gear and good swords.

 

I can give you gear around level 60, which if your armour and weapon lores are high enough you'll be able to equip.

 

Edit: Go get yourself a boneslicer or two as they are easily obtainable.

 

I am on the 360 version. I'll have to look into the bone slicers. I got them very early on but they wer eunimpressive at the time (since I started the qest at a low level). I'll have to see.

 

One of the swords I do have is an ice flash, which seems to be a pretty decent one, it's just low level (31) so stats are not very good.

[BlackJAC 3]

If you're playing the xbox version pm me and I can give you some Nio gear and good swords.

 

I can give you gear around level 60, which if your armour and weapon lores are high enough you'll be able to equip.

 

Edit: Go get yourself a boneslicer or two as they are easily obtainable.

 

I am on the 360 version. I'll have to look into the bone slicers. I got them very early on but they wer eunimpressive at the time (since I started the qest at a low level). I'll have to see.

 

One of the swords I do have is an ice flash, which seems to be a pretty decent one, it's just low level (31) so stats are not very good.

 

 

Those are half decent weapons. Ice flash is one of my favourite weapons.

 

if you have a decent enough shopper, then buy damage rings (with a secondary effect if possible) and go to a blacksmith to socket them. like armour, most weapons aren't great until you add damage, deathblow etc.

 

You mentioned you have a shopper and if that's the case spend a couple or so hours scanning vendor stalls for these rings. if that fails, you can still go to a blacksmith and get him to add damage to your weapons. More is better than nowt.

[EclecticGroove 0]

Those are half decent weapons. Ice flash is one of my favourite weapons.

 

if you have a decent enough shopper, then buy damage rings (with a secondary effect if possible) and go to a blacksmith to socket them. like armour, most weapons aren't great until you add damage, deathblow etc.

 

You mentioned you have a shopper and if that's the case spend a couple or so hours scanning vendor stalls for these rings. if that fails, you can still go to a blacksmith and get him to add damage to your weapons. More is better than nowt.

 

Yeah, this character IS the shopper.. in the making anyways. That's the whole reason for trying to get her up in levels and all. Otherwise I would have dumped all her points into more combat oriented skills (as opposed to bargaining/EP). So far I come up with next to nothing when I go through shop runs (equiping the +bargaining runes I got). Nothing over a 2 star with few (if any) slots on them comes up. At least the 0 star items have been getting less frequent, I guess that bargaining just doesn't really take off until there's a ton of points in it (it's at my level at the moment without any + bargain items).

I just finally saw my first decent deathblow accessory item so socketed that. Most of the + damage is still a static +11, or a low (like 1-2%) %. I have started finding a few more decent ones now in gold, so I'll be working to put those on the next weapon I get.

[BlackJAC 3]

I think that's another thing you're doing wrong - trying to master 2 general skills at once. I'd either make her a shopper or a magic find character until you've mastered two offensive skills, not both at the same time.

 

I'd forget about EP for the moment and just concentrate on bargaining.

 

if you're finding deathblow at vendor stalls, then your bargaining must be ok. Did you know runemasters sell rings and amulets too? Most of my best jewels have come from rune vendors.

 

The best place to shop is in eastern part of Thylysium as there's a cave door next to both the rune and item vendors and every time you enter and exit, the vendors inventory are reset.

Edited October 14, 2009 by BlackJAC

[EclecticGroove 0]

I think that's another thing you're doing wrong - trying to master 2 general skills at once. I'd either make her a shopper or a magic find character until you've mastered two offensive skills, not both at the same time.

 

I'd forget about EP for the moment and just concentrate on bargaining.

 

if you're finding deathblow at vendor stalls, then your bargaining must be ok. Did you know runemasters sell rings and amulets too? Most of my best jewels have come from rune vendors.

 

The best place to shop is in eastern part of Thylysium as there's a cave door next to both the rune and item vendors and every time you enter and exit, the vendors inventory are reset.

 

Yeah, this is only the second character I've ever made.. the first one was a Temple Guardian. I made it through bronze with him ok, but they are such picky classes that the build I had iwlly nilly just started making while knowing nothing just didn't cut it against the tougher monsters in silver for his level.

 

I don't really plan to go any further than just reachign niob with her however, maybe kill a few things here and there to make money, but that would be it. Once I hav that all unlocked I'll start a "real" character. I'm thinking a HE, maybe a druid... but I've heard druids don't work so well on the consoles due to some bugs.

[BlackJAC 3]

You'll struggle getting a weak offensive and defensive character through platinum. You have a survival bonus that you gain from not dying and that in itself offers up sweet rewards and bonuses, so dying usually leads to rubbish finds and lower xp. However, I really wouldn't bother about getting your characters right if you've only began as half the fun is learning from your mistakes. Like most other things, you learn a lot more from your mistakes than you do copying and pasting someone else's build.

 

if you make a build and you see a skill isn't benefiting your particular build, then you'll know not to do it again. Each and every one of us have binned characters (hell, I still do from time to time), so I wouldn't get too bothered if you screw a build over.

 

 

HE and Dryads are the best classes imo. Dryads are awesome due to the fact you get to use blowpipes and have attacks that use bows to their full potential. Dryads aren't bugged, the weapons are. With a dryad, I always carry a bow and pipe as they can be quite buggy with certain enemies. If one keeps missing, then just swap them over.

[gogoblender 3,072]

HE and Dryads are the best classes imo. Dryads are awesome due to the fact you get to use blowpipes and have attacks that use bows to their full potential. Dryads aren't bugged, the weapons are. With a dryad, I always carry a bow and pipe as they can be quite buggy with certain enemies. If one keeps missing, then just swap them over.

 

Ayup, dryads are just incredible class. As others have noted, the melee in this game is kind of lacking...targeting leaves a bit to be desired.... BlackJAC, what are you finding the blowpipe to be bugged against btw... I know it was having problems with terrain and heights..noticeably riders in the desert...is there something in particular that you have noted? I'm able to get away with using my pipe on everything in the game cept for Turtles which have reflect and are anathema

 

I also think one of the reasons why I've liked Dryads so much is because if you're careful with placement and good with your targetting, you can count on killing everything from a distance, and hence cut down on a lot of the def. Damage Mitigation for a Dryad is something I've never had to look at... usually by mid silver, she's so good at killing things with her pipe, that I only sparsely even consider looking at def, unless it's against bosses, and I'd much rather work for an effective bind or evade rather than build in def or hp which are, IMO, working from a very penalized part of the dryad's "dryadness". She's made to run light, have perhaps the best DPS in the game, and the devs have balanced in very excellent dynamic defenses (Golden Glade Touch) and her incredible bark buff as a means of evening out the possible builds.

 

 

gogo

[EclecticGroove 0]

You'll struggle getting a weak offensive and defensive character through platinum. You have a survival bonus that you gain from not dying and that in itself offers up sweet rewards and bonuses, so dying usually leads to rubbish finds and lower xp. However, I really wouldn't bother about getting your characters right if you've only began as half the fun is learning from your mistakes. Like most other things, you learn a lot more from your mistakes than you do copying and pasting someone else's build.

 

if you make a build and you see a skill isn't benefiting your particular build, then you'll know not to do it again. Each and every one of us have binned characters (hell, I still do from time to time), so I wouldn't get too bothered if you screw a build over.

 

 

HE and Dryads are the best classes imo. Dryads are awesome due to the fact you get to use blowpipes and have attacks that use bows to their full potential. Dryads aren't bugged, the weapons are. With a dryad, I always carry a bow and pipe as they can be quite buggy with certain enemies. If one keeps missing, then just swap them over.

 

I agree about finding stuff out.. that's why I just jumped in with the TG. I'd like to remake one eventually, but they are sickeningly augment dependent, more so than any other class I can see.

 

And I think it was about the blow guns that I read about. And they seem like an awesome weapon to go with. Using my TG's Area of Effect skills certainly made me enjoy that aspect of the game, and they really don't excel at it... which is why I was thinking of going for a HE.

 

As for survival bonus... I was doing pretty good. Didn't even come close to dying once in silver up until I got to the mist boss... then it seemed like it flipped a switch to have things just 1-2 shotting me at random or haivng mobs of enemies simultaneously crit me... so I went from 0 deaths to my current 9 deaths. I had over 60^ survival bonus the last time I checked, and now I'm sitting at ~30% and trying to not die any longer! heh

[BlackJAC 3]

I find blowpipes are bugged with floor traps or any sort of traps and it's more evident in the final boss fight as you can't hit those things that spawn the TG's and they don't hit the large globes either.

 

Bows are more buggy though, as they struggle to hit bats, mounted beetles that are found in the desert and those little globes that you encounter midway through the Dryad islands.

 

Ain't a problem if you carry both weapons though. I also think the life leech effect that you get from using projectiles is pretty cool too.

 

@EclecticGroove

 

I think that's why you're toiling one minute then finding it easy the next as your survival bonus directly affects what level of enemy you face. once you lose it, enemies will be considerably easier, but the pay off is less xp. it also has a direct effect on your magic find too.

 

Like I said, mate, try to accumulated around 50 or 60% deathblow and enemies will drop like flies once you get their health down to a certain value. The only downside to deathblow is it has diminishing returns the more you add so if you socket 2x 20% deathblow items you'll only actually have 30% as I'm sure it halves every time you add more than 1 deathblow item.

[gogoblender 3,072]

I also think the life leech effect that you get from using projectiles is pretty cool too.

 

 

Alleluia!

 

Best effect in the game!

 

 

gogo

[BlackJAC 3]

Nothing like shooting off a few laser guided missiles. That's the child in me coming out now as I really do like to think of them as laser guided missiles, especially if you have one that does fire damage.

Edited October 14, 2009 by BlackJAC

[Big Jimmy 0]

My first shopper toon was a BFG (cookie cutter) Seraphim. Having EP and bargaining doesn't compromise the build too much and you should be able to reach Niob without too much trouble. Having life leech effects on this build was excellent.

 

Dobri's BFG guide on here was a great help.

 

I agree with BlackJAC that you really should concentrate on either EP or Bargaining and again I would go with Bargaining. Bargaining is much easier to control as you can just keep going to vendors until you get what you want. Just note though that vendors don't sell 3 or 4 star items as they are unique or legendary items.

[karruptedkat 0]

my two cents... and well worth it if your making a shopper character the dryad is hands down the easiest and fastest to build... shes so over powered that you can kill bosses literally w/o seeing them. Also going from 1-150 in 2weeks rarely playing the game boost that fact. you could even take up both ep and bargaining and still have the skills needed to mow down mobs easily.Only downside is mobs will have died way before you see them making collecting items somewhat a pain. I still get a Good number of rare items.

 

take this build and your dryad will level fast and get you all the items/amu's you desire.

 

1. E.P. (to 5 only to unlock barg or higher if you desire)

 

2. Barg(keep maxxed)

 

3. nature focus ( for A.B./lances/T.v.)

 

4. voodoo focus ( for viperish diseease)

 

5. Concentration(obvious)

 

6. nature lore( boss killer booster) Combine** E.L & tangled vines**

 

7. combat discipline

 

8. voodoo lore

 

9 ancient magic

 

10. ((((totally optional trust me wont even need last skill. I picked shield mastery to boost defense but wasnt even needed at all even on Niob)

 

Combos-----

 

Viperish disease(make sure w/e area you in you have the right shrunken head to spread the disease fast)

 

Black curse/Tangled Vines/Edaphic Lances (this is you boss killer)

 

Goldenglade Touch.

 

SKILLS------------

 

keep barg/voodoo focus/ nature focus capped.....

 

everything else is pretty self explanatory...

 

 

You only need one buff up at all Ancient bark.....you can use Moribund Animus (Buff) to kill bosses buts thats it or farming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

forgot to mention what you do>.>....

 

collect shrunken heads then just spam viperish disease on the same types of mobs till it starts to spread by itself. It will usually if 3 or mobs are clustered together. I.e kobolds and spiders in the swamp

[Sarcolemming 8]

I had a similar issue to this earlier today actually. I was fighting Octaglomus with a brand new seraphim that had +evade stats from pants and boots. Even though it should have made at most, maybe 20%, somehow they stacked to make it nearly 80%(+?!) I only used 5 pots on a very upset octaglomus, and even then only cause he poisoned me a few times. It would seem to me at least that the seraphim in particular has buggy evade chances, as fighting against any normal champion, a bear for example in orc territory Demanded I use at least 7-12 pots cause of crazy criticals and monster damage.

 

In short, I think it's a buggy evade skill the OP was looking at to begin with. That would explain why he wasn't hit very often sometimes, and other times he was ripped a new one by bloodthirsty monsters. Helpful hint though, Cleansing Brilliance works wonders against the undead, use it remotely near the cloud and the skellies drop like flies, no melee, no fuss, no muss. Just bones, works all over the swamp too, fastest levels I've ever made : )

[EclecticGroove 0]

Yeah, since the last post I've beaten silver and just beat gold last night at level 60.

 

It helped that I'm finally starting to find "somewhat" decent items now. Most things I find in store or as drops still have 0-1 socket, but a few are getting lucky with more... it's helping cut down damage a lot.

 

Gold was a bit of a pain to beat... I got all the way to the last nameless guardian with no problem, then it 1 shotted me... lol. I spent an entire day in free world killing every boss I could find as well as tons of normal enemies. Got a fairly decent number of items + 2 levels, that was enough to finish off the last guardian and make my way to platinum. The enemies in plat are certainly harder, I can tell I'll need some levels before I take on the bosses... but my usual routine should work. IE: go into free world and open up the portal spots, then jump into the quest mode and run through that.

[EclecticGroove 0]

So, I tried the whole Viperish Disease thing (or should say am trying), since I had a Druid at level 1 for future messing around.

 

Is there a particular level/build or something where it becomes this overpowered force?

 

So far I'm level 14 and while it can be kind of fun at times... it really isn't very efficient, my level 5 High Elf is far more efficient with Area of Effect.

 

It seems like if I just tos VD on a large group of monsters and run off, they all wind up spreading out too much while chasing me/returning... so maybe 1-2 from a group of 5+ will actually wind up dying from it.

 

At the moment I need to find a halfway decent group of monsters (Undead around Clearview for instance), toss on VD, and then run in circles around them to keep them all close enough to not only spread initially, but keep it continually spreading till they die.

 

That can be fun.. but far from interesting, certainly not overpowered, and not very efficient when compared to the massive 1-2 Area of Effect spells to kill and move on like the HE.

 

I have VD modded with gangrene, transmission, and contaminate BTW.